Durango police: Man accidentally shot himself with child in car

Driver tried to take himself to hospital

Durango Police Department detectives investigate the car belonging to a man who accidentally shot himself Friday. The man was sitting in the parked car when the shooting happened and then tried to drive himself to the hospital, police said. He pulled over on Camino del Rio near Santa Rita Park.

Jerry McBride/Durango Herald

Durango Police Department detectives investigate the car belonging to a man who accidentally shot himself Friday. The man was sitting in the parked car when the shooting happened and then tried to drive himself to the hospital, police said. He pulled over on Camino del Rio near Santa Rita Park.

Jerry McBride/Durango Herald

Durango police: Man accidentally shot himself with child in car

Durango Police Department detectives investigate the car belonging to a man who accidentally shot himself Friday. The man was sitting in the parked car when the shooting happened and then tried to drive himself to the hospital, police said. He pulled over on Camino del Rio near Santa Rita Park.

Jerry McBride/Durango Herald

Durango Police Department detectives investigate the car belonging to a man who accidentally shot himself Friday. The man was sitting in the parked car when the shooting happened and then tried to drive himself to the hospital, police said. He pulled over on Camino del Rio near Santa Rita Park.

Jerry McBride/Durango Herald

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Durango police are investigating a 21-year-old man who accidentally shot himself Friday afternoon in his Hyundai Accent while a child was in the vehicle.

“It could turn out to be a negligent discharge,” said Cmdr. Jacob Dunlop, spokesman with the Durango Police Department.

The man was trying to “make sure the weapon was safe” while sitting in his parked car when he shot himself in the calf, Dunlop said. An 8-year-old girl who was in the car at the time was unharmed, Dunlop said. The girl is related to the man, he said.

After the man shot himself, he attempted to drive himself to Mercy Regional Medical Center, Dunlop said. The man pulled over on Camino del Rio near Santa Rita Park when he could not continue driving, he said. The man and other passersby called 911 around 12:30 p.m., Dunlop said.

The man was taken to Mercy for treatment, Dunlop said. The gunshot wound was not life-threatening, he said.

Police are not releasing the man’s name or the type of firearm that was involved, he said. The man was in lawful possession of the weapon.

Police towed the man’s car and are holding it as evidence, Dunlop said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

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